World Indoor Trials Championship Granada, Spain Round 3
Dougie Lampkin’s 2008 World indoor campaign continued
with yet another disappointing result for the thirty one year
old, as he finished in sixth place at the third round in Granada
late last night. This latest below par peformance leaves the
Beta rider in sixth position in the overall standings at the
mid point in the shortened championship.
The usual array of Spanish indoor obstacles created the seven
sections and one dual lane race that formed the qualifying
challenge inside the Palacio Deportes Stadium. Three thousand
local fans packed the arena to watch the seven competing riders,
as they fought it out for a place in the all-important three-man
final.
Following last week’s poor showing at the previous
round in Barcelona, Lampkin remained in Northern Spain to
continue with his training schedule, in an attempt to familiarise
himself with his new two stroke machine. After three years
on a very different four stroke bike, Dougie always knew that
the initial transition was going to be anything, but easy.
A nervous dab in the opening hazard of the night was a sign
of things to come, as the multi World champion fived the very
next section in what was to be a low scoring heat. A clean
at section three marked a brief return to form, before a series
of three fives in a row saw him crash down the leader board.
Lampkin at least finished the night on a slightly better
note with a single dab in the last observed section, the waterfall,
and a victory against his younger team mate Fajardo in the
head to head race.
“Words can’t express just how disappointed I
am, not only for myself, but for the rest of the team, as
the results in no way reflect the effort everyone has put
in over the last month or so.”
“The development work we have done appeared to have
gone well, but perhaps we have all expected too much in such
a short period of time. The good news is that we have now
got three weeks without any competitions in which to get things
sorted and to give me further time to get used to the bike.”
Attendance: 3000
Results:
Final
1: Bou 17, 3: Cabestany 24, 3: Fujinami 26
Heat
Qualifiers:
1: Antonio Bou (SPA-Montesa-HRC) 5,
2: Albert Cabestany (SPA-Sherco) 6,
3: Takahisa Fujinami (JPN-Montesa-HRC) 7
(faster time),
Non-Qualifiers:
4: Adam Raga (SPA-Gas Gas) 7,
5: Jeroni Fajardo (SPA-Beta) 17,
6: Dougie Lampkin (GBR-Beta) 22,
7: James Dabill (GBR-Montesa) 33
Current championship standings:
1: Bou 28, 2: Cabestany 22, 3: Raga 21,
4: Fujinami 16, 5: Fajardo 12,
6: Lampkin 8, 7:Dabill 7, 8: Bethune 1
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